FELIX HOLT, THE RADICAL

Introduction and Notes by Dinny Thorold, University of Westminster FelixHolt is set, like Middlemarch in the Midlands at the time of the GreatReform Bill of 1832. This novel brings social and political historyvividly to life with its magnificent rendering of provincial England inthe ferment of electioneering. Against this background Eliot tells a lovestory and weaves a plot which has many elements of the sensation novel,such as illegitimacy, blackmail, and the discovery of an heiress, wheresuspense is maintained until the end.